The Next Election, Political News, and Other Forms of Comedy (US, UK, & Intl)

Youre the perfect democrat!
Ha! Bite your tongue!!

Though my disgust with the GOP in the late 00s and early 10s did cause me to reevaluate some of my policy positions that I sort of took for granted, and as a result I realized that I’m far less conservative than I thought I was. A lot of things that I just accepted as conventional policy wisdom, upon evaluation, didn’t really align with how I saw our society or the relevant values I hold.
 
Should Bernie Sanders' fundraising worry rivals?

"On Tuesday Bernie Sanders announced he would seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. On Wednesday he demonstrated why he will be a formidable candidate.

In 24 hours the Vermont senator amassed $6m (£4.6m) in small-dollar campaign contributions from more than 225,000 supporters.
That number dwarfs the rest of the Democratic field, including the previously impressive $1.5m mark California Senator Kamala Harris brought in from 35,000 donors in her first day as an official candidate."

Who in their right mind believes a 77 year old should be President? He'll be 78 by the time he wins and in his 79th year in his first year of office.
 
No single person is going to have an answer, certainly not a politician. But if we can get people to agree it’s a problem that needs to be addressed (not quite there yet) and get people discussing it (almost there), then a more reasonable answer than “free college and loan forgiveness for all” or “free market principles are all we need” will emerge.

I’m glad she was willing to say no, even though she had to be cornered to do it. Should hopefully make for interesting primary debates.

Random ideas I like:
- free or cheaper two year colleges and trade schools. Too many people go to four year universities, and there are also too many four year universities.
It isn’t the students’ fault, but there are definitely students who are better off not going into debt to get a four year degree.
- Expand the public service loan foregiveness thing. I also support mandatory service (though not necessarily military) for both genders.
- Cut interest rates on student loans
- Freeze interest for people who took out student loans between 2000-2010 and that are paying back loans
- provide tax incentives for corporations who invest heavily in human capital and establish intensive training programs providing transferable skills (e.g., Rackspace’s Open Cloud Academy)
- probably investigate student loan regulations. Don’t know anything about them, nor do I want to

In the UK, when it was ''free'' or nearly free, access to a university education was strictly rationed and limited. This insured high quality courses and high quality and in demand graduates. Also the status of being a graduate held a lot of esteem. I can remember back in the early and mid 80s someone who was at university had a status not afforded today. Now it's just expected and no significant leg-up outside of certain hard science and specialist degrees.

The universities have been cynical in increasing costs of tuition, diluting course content, extending degree subjects to include quite narrow fields of intellectual rigour and increasing the pool of students with an approach that each student is a client. The final piece to the problem is that there is no real concern whether the student will have sufficient job prospects and income prospects to justify the debt taken on as a student.

Reform is unlikely from the educational establishment with the government as ultimate guarantor. But quite clearly, a lot of subjects are best taught with a mixture of work with sandwich degrees (as it use to be in the UK) and night school. The problem here is that most employers are not interested in investing in undergraduate level traineeships, not when you can poach the finish article from other nations.

Should Bernie Sanders' fundraising worry rivals?

"On Tuesday Bernie Sanders announced he would seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. On Wednesday he demonstrated why he will be a formidable candidate.

In 24 hours the Vermont senator amassed $6m (£4.6m) in small-dollar campaign contributions from more than 225,000 supporters.
That number dwarfs the rest of the Democratic field, including the previously impressive $1.5m mark California Senator Kamala Harris brought in from 35,000 donors in her first day as an official candidate."

Who in their right mind believes a 77 year old should be President? He'll be 78 by the time he wins and in his 79th year in his first year of office.

Soviet era Woody Guthrie fans?

At risk of joining the eschelons of the conspiratorium, many of the new comers and Bernie himself could be considered the ultimate Russian (or indeed other nations hostile to America) assets if they gain power.
 
In the UK, when it was ''free'' or nearly free, access to a university education was strictly rationed and limited. This insured high quality courses and high quality and in demand graduates. Also the status of being a graduate held a lot of esteem. I can remember back in the early and mid 80s someone who was at university had a status not afforded today. Now it's just expected and no significant leg-up outside of certain hard science and specialist degrees.

The universities have been cynical in increasing costs of tuition, diluting course content, extending degree subjects to include quite narrow fields of intellectual rigour and increasing the pool of students with an approach that each student is a client. The final piece to the problem is that there is no real concern whether the student will have sufficient job prospects and income prospects to justify the debt taken on as a student.

Reform is unlikely from the educational establishment with the government as ultimate guarantor. But quite clearly, a lot of subjects are best taught with a mixture of work with sandwich degrees (as it use to be in the UK) and night school. The problem here is that most employers are not interested in investing in undergraduate level traineeships, not when you can poach the finish article from other nations.



Soviet era Woody Guthrie fans?

At risk of joining the eschelons of the conspiratorium, many of the new comers and Bernie himself could be considered the ultimate Russian (or indeed other nations hostile to America) assets if they gain power.
Look another democrat!
 
Ha! Bite your tongue!!

Though my disgust with the GOP in the late 00s and early 10s did cause me to reevaluate some of my policy positions that I sort of took for granted, and as a result I realized that I’m far less conservative than I thought I was. A lot of things that I just accepted as conventional policy wisdom, upon evaluation, didn’t really align with how I saw our society or the relevant values I hold.

Welcome to the party brosef.
 

There's nothing really controversial about Peterson's academic standpoint: it's Jungian psychology. But in the strange times we live in, the left have insisted on making him their bete noire and the more they attack, like in the Cathy Newman interview, the more they expose themselves and enrich Peterson's bank account. He knows he's riding a wave and good on you son for taking full advantage of it.
 
We're talking Fayetteville to Charlotte, approx. 800,000 people inured to having their votes misappropriated. Their recently elected rep. (R) was just invalidated for voter fraud.

Republican!
Positivity!
Only the rats will survive!
 

She's racist. She clearly states that a black woman who is in Congress to contradict Cohen's testimony must be a ''prop'' and have no credibility as it is inherently racist for a black person to stand up and support Trump and that she is nothing more than a stage prop. She doesn't even give her humanity.
 
She's racist. She clearly states that a black woman who is in Congress to contradict Cohen's testimony must be a ''prop'' and have no credibility as it is inherently racist for a black person to stand up and support Trump and that she is nothing more than a stage prop. She doesn't even give her humanity.
Rashida Talib is a racist? Against which race, the whites or the blacks?
 
Rashida Talib is a racist? Against which race, the whites or the blacks?

My position, based on her statement, is that she is racist against black people in that she does not afford the lady any other status as being an stage prop for Trump and Meadows. She denies the lady free thought and believes she must only be acting under the agency of others. That's pretty racist from where I am standing.
 
My position, based on her statement, is that she is racist against black people in that she does not afford the lady any other status as being an stage prop for Trump and Meadows. She denies the lady free thought and believes she must only be acting under the agency of others. That's pretty racist from where I am standing.
are you standing in a toilet?
 
Thruth Thruth will be happy about this

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/justin-trudeau-is-finished.html

Justin Trudeau Is Finished

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is finished. A long simmering scandal did him in.


Between 2001 and 2011 the Canadian construction and engineering company SNC-Lavalin bribed officials in Libya with tens of millions to get contracts in that country. In 2015 the company was charged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. It tried to avoid a trial and argued instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing its chief executive officer.

In 2016, SNC-Lavalin admitted that some former executives had illegally arranged donations of more than C$80,000 to Trudeau's Liberal Party from 2004 to 2011.

The company had revenues of some C$10 billion in 2018. Some 9,000 of its 52,000 employees work in Canada. The headquarter and 3,400 of its employees are in the province of Quebec where the Liberals need to pick up votes in October's federal election to keep their majority.

It was the task of the Justice Minister and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to decide if the case should go on trial as the law demands, or if it could be settled out of court. A trial would likely end with SNC-Lavalin banned from all public contracts in Canada for 10 years. It would cost jobs and votes.

The company lobbied the Liberal government which brought in a remediation agreement regime in 2018 as part of a massive budget bill.

During the fall of 2018 Trudeau and his allies tried to press the attorney general, a Canadian aboriginal, to overturn the decision of the director of public prosecutions, to apply the new law and to thereby drop the criminal charges against SNC. She would not do that. In January Trudeau fired her from the justice minister and attorney general job and gave her a minor position as veteran's minister. Under solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidences Wilson-Raybould could not speak out about the issue.

On February 7 the scandal leaked from anonymous sources. Five days later Wilson-Raybould resigned as veterans minister. She hired a retired Supreme Court judge as her lawyer, to advise her on what she could say. On February 18 Gerald Butts, Trudeau's friend and principle secretary, was made the fall guy. He resigned even while he denied that he tried to influence the attorney general. Under pressure, the House of Commons Justice Committee invited Wilson-Raybould to testify. Trudeau had to wave some privilege which allowed her to finally speak out about her time as attorney general.

Yesterday Wilson-Raybould testified.

From her long opening statement:

For a period of approximately four months between September and December 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the Attorney General of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with SNC-Lavalin. These events involved 11 people (excluding myself and my political staff) – from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, and the Office of the Minister of Finance. This included in-person conversations, telephone calls, emails, and text messages. There were approximately 10 phone calls and 10 meetings specifically about SNC-Lavalin that I and/or my staff was a part of.​

Wilson-Raybould gave all the details: who, when, where and how. There is a paper trail. She made detailed notes of everything that happened.

Pressuring the AG to drop charges can be a offense under Canada's criminal code (pdf), section 139(2):

Every one who wilfully attempts in any manner other than a manner. described in subsection (1) to obstruct,pervert or defeat the course of justice is guilty of an in-dictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.​

During her testimony Wilson-Raybould noted that she was not yet allowed to speak out about what happened after she was fired as attorney general. There is likely more to come from her. She says that she believes that no law was broken but that Trudeau behaved inappropriately. A jury and court may see that differently.

Trudeau responded in a news conference that he "completely disagreed" with Wilson-Raybould’s version of events. He claimed that that neither he nor his staff had done anything wrong. The issue is under investigation of the independent ethics commissioner and Trudeau hopes that he will be found not guilty of any wrongdoing.


Even if he did not break any law Trudeau will be unable to escape the storm he is now under. With the case pending it will be difficult for the Liberals to win the October elections. It would be best for the party if Trudeau would step down and let someone else take the lead.

There is potential candidate with more credibility than the former media darling Justin Trudeau ever had.

Ezra Levant - @ezralevant - 2:24 utc - 28 Feb 2019
10. Last detail. Jody Wilson-Raybould's father was an Aboriginal activist who butted heads with Justin Trudeau's father. Here they are bantering. Bill Wilson tells Pierre Trudeau that his daughter Jody wants to be PM one day. Maybe she will be?​
 
Thruth Thruth will be happy about this

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/justin-trudeau-is-finished.html

Justin Trudeau Is Finished

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is finished. A long simmering scandal did him in.


Between 2001 and 2011 the Canadian construction and engineering company SNC-Lavalin bribed officials in Libya with tens of millions to get contracts in that country. In 2015 the company was charged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. It tried to avoid a trial and argued instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing its chief executive officer.

In 2016, SNC-Lavalin admitted that some former executives had illegally arranged donations of more than C$80,000 to Trudeau's Liberal Party from 2004 to 2011.

The company had revenues of some C$10 billion in 2018. Some 9,000 of its 52,000 employees work in Canada. The headquarter and 3,400 of its employees are in the province of Quebec where the Liberals need to pick up votes in October's federal election to keep their majority.

It was the task of the Justice Minister and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to decide if the case should go on trial as the law demands, or if it could be settled out of court. A trial would likely end with SNC-Lavalin banned from all public contracts in Canada for 10 years. It would cost jobs and votes.

The company lobbied the Liberal government which brought in a remediation agreement regime in 2018 as part of a massive budget bill.

During the fall of 2018 Trudeau and his allies tried to press the attorney general, a Canadian aboriginal, to overturn the decision of the director of public prosecutions, to apply the new law and to thereby drop the criminal charges against SNC. She would not do that. In January Trudeau fired her from the justice minister and attorney general job and gave her a minor position as veteran's minister. Under solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidences Wilson-Raybould could not speak out about the issue.

On February 7 the scandal leaked from anonymous sources. Five days later Wilson-Raybould resigned as veterans minister. She hired a retired Supreme Court judge as her lawyer, to advise her on what she could say. On February 18 Gerald Butts, Trudeau's friend and principle secretary, was made the fall guy. He resigned even while he denied that he tried to influence the attorney general. Under pressure, the House of Commons Justice Committee invited Wilson-Raybould to testify. Trudeau had to wave some privilege which allowed her to finally speak out about her time as attorney general.

Yesterday Wilson-Raybould testified.

From her long opening statement:

For a period of approximately four months between September and December 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the Attorney General of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with SNC-Lavalin. These events involved 11 people (excluding myself and my political staff) – from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, and the Office of the Minister of Finance. This included in-person conversations, telephone calls, emails, and text messages. There were approximately 10 phone calls and 10 meetings specifically about SNC-Lavalin that I and/or my staff was a part of.​

Wilson-Raybould gave all the details: who, when, where and how. There is a paper trail. She made detailed notes of everything that happened.

Pressuring the AG to drop charges can be a offense under Canada's criminal code (pdf), section 139(2):

Every one who wilfully attempts in any manner other than a manner. described in subsection (1) to obstruct,pervert or defeat the course of justice is guilty of an in-dictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.​

During her testimony Wilson-Raybould noted that she was not yet allowed to speak out about what happened after she was fired as attorney general. There is likely more to come from her. She says that she believes that no law was broken but that Trudeau behaved inappropriately. A jury and court may see that differently.

Trudeau responded in a news conference that he "completely disagreed" with Wilson-Raybould’s version of events. He claimed that that neither he nor his staff had done anything wrong. The issue is under investigation of the independent ethics commissioner and Trudeau hopes that he will be found not guilty of any wrongdoing.


Even if he did not break any law Trudeau will be unable to escape the storm he is now under. With the case pending it will be difficult for the Liberals to win the October elections. It would be best for the party if Trudeau would step down and let someone else take the lead.

There is potential candidate with more credibility than the former media darling Justin Trudeau ever had.

Ezra Levant - @ezralevant - 2:24 utc - 28 Feb 2019
10. Last detail. Jody Wilson-Raybould's father was an Aboriginal activist who butted heads with Justin Trudeau's father. Here they are bantering. Bill Wilson tells Pierre Trudeau that his daughter Jody wants to be PM one day. Maybe she will be?​

Whilst I have some empathy towards SNC Lavalin, as when you choose to operate in those kind of countries you will be expected to pay various bribes hidden as consultancy fees and give jobs and entertain the idiot sons of the dictators or high connected businessmen. If you don't do it, plenty of others in the queue. However, when it comes to the assistant drama teacher and feminist gobshite that is Trudeau who has done nothing other than allow his father's fame to ennoble him into high office, the mask has slipped and he's an utter rotter and hope he's brought down, exposed and replaced.
 
She's racist. She clearly states that a black woman who is in Congress to contradict Cohen's testimony must be a ''prop'' and have no credibility as it is inherently racist for a black person to stand up and support Trump and that she is nothing more than a stage prop. She doesn't even give her humanity.

Should I just assume you are much more informed on this situation than Rep. Rashida Tlaib? You've spoken with said "prop", she's not a paid crisis actor? Was she at Sandy Hook?
 
Should I just assume you are much more informed on this situation than Rep. Rashida Tlaib? You've spoken with said "prop", she's not a paid crisis actor? Was she at Sandy Hook?

Never assume anything. I take it at the face value on the public stage. A prop on stage is not a person, she was un-personed by Tlaib which is one of the current tried and tested techniques of the left.
 
If you should try to come back at me with links, please check their veracity and validity first. It is a courtesy that I afford you and I will be granted the same.
 
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If you should try to come back at me with links, please check their veracity and validity first. It is a courtesy that I afford you and I will be granted the same.

We don't need links, it's a question of interpretation of the events, which I consider exposed the racism of Rashida Tlaib. I expect you will be seeing a lot more of this as the Democrats start to mirror the UK's Labour Party.
 
Your people.

Not now: all my family members who were active in Labour as local politicians, mayors, councillors and local party volunteers have all long since left when they realised the party was taken over by Trots and Islamists and the good family friend, the Right Honourable, Frank Field, MP for Birkenhead is now an independent having had enough of the anti-Semitism and the "culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation" which you Americans just about now are getting a taste of and yes, it will not rest, it will be relentless 24/7 attacks until they take over the Democrats one district at a time. Look to Labour and see the Democrats future: run by bigots with no track record of legislative achievements.
 
Voting for Labour at any point in the history of the party is a disqualifier to be taken seriously

Labour, have historically done some grand things, things they are rightly proud of. But, and this affects left leaning parties in your country too, their current obsession with identity politics is alienating their core support and risks pushing it to the fringes.

It wont end well.
 
Labour, have historically done some grand things, things they are rightly proud of. But, and this affects left leaning parties in your country too, their current obsession with identity politics is alienating their core support and risks pushing it to the fringes.

It wont end well.
Labour has been one unbroken line of utter shitheads from Ramsay McDonald and Clement Attlee through Tony Blair and the current moron you have heading it.

Their core support is the problem.
 
The Labor party was taken over by neo-liberals fixated on identity politics in the nineties and has never recovered. The left in the Democratic Party in the US is equally sidelined by a liberal coalition of identity based politics that formed in the 1980s. All of which makes both parties look pretty dismal... and the American rights’ recent embrace of their own identity politics even more comical and tragic.

Oddly, the ALP drifted to the center-right without even a pretense of identity politics- though the Greens kinda filled that void for them.
 
The left in the Democratic Party in the US is equally sidelined by a liberal coalition of identity based politics that formed in the 1980s.

I think you may see some pushback on that front on the coming year. There's a lot of friction from centrist and red state dems right now.
 
Let’s hope so.

In other news Rand Paul just said he will vote to block the “emergency” declaration, guaranteeing passage in the Senate. Now that the damn has burst, a few more will follow. Not enough to be veto-proof but it’s still another sign of the party probably won’t easily survive to downfall of Trump.
 
Let’s hope so.

In other news Rand Paul just said he will vote to block the “emergency” declaration, guaranteeing passage in the Senate. Now that the damn has burst, a few more will follow. Not enough to be veto-proof but it’s still another sign of the party probably won’t easily survive to downfall of Trump.

Yeah, we will see anyway. The Democrats would be idiotic not to grab the massive swath of independent voters who have been repulsed by the lunacy of whatever the fuck the Republican party is these days, but I never underestimate the Dems ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I agree on the latter point. Will be ugly for sure
 

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